Sir, - "The Government is preparing to introduce legislation intended to apply greater pressure to water companies to flouridate the public water supply, supposedly to improve public health. In reality, such legislation is merely a convenient excuse to dispose of a chemical that is highly toxic and dangerous, both to the environment and to human health. But this is the side of the debate that hasn't been discussed in the public arena, and will never be either, if the fluoridation lobby is allowed to dominate the argument." This extract is from the current issue of The Ecologist in an article entitled "Water Fluoridation: The Truth They Don't Want You To Know" by Robin Whitlock.
The quotation refers to the UK. In this instance, however, we are not likely to follow our erstwhile imperial masters. The simple reason is that our drinking water is already fluoridated. We are arguably the most fluoridated nation on earth. But the plain people of Ireland were neither asked if they wanted it nor were they given an opportunity to refuse it. Presumably our intrepid leaders knew what was best for us. The US government paid large sums of money to the Irish Government in the late 1950s for the promotion of fluoridation. The Irish fluoridation law, ordering that all public water have fluoride at one part per million, was passed in 1960.
Much of the original so-called proof that fluoride is safe for humans in low dosages was generated by atomic bomb (Manhattan Project) scientists, who had been secretly ordered to provide "evidence useful in litigation" against defence contractors for fluoride injury to citizens.
Since fluoride is a cumulative poison there is no "safe" level for its ingestion. There is evidence that fluoridation is associated with central nervous system damage, kidney damage, thyroid function damage, gastrointestinal disturbance, Down's Syndrome, infant mortality, hip fractures, bone abnormalities, mottled teeth, and other diseases. And yet dentists estimate that over half of Irish children still suffer from dental cavities! Whatever happened to the medical maxim "first do no harm"? Fluoridation should never have been introduced here and should be ended now. - Yours, etc.,
Myles Crowe, Old Brewery Lane, Clonakilty, West Cork.